The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where host Emily Bright checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. Listen to Ask a Bookseller to find your next favorite book.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller and produced by Kelly Gordon every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is an annual event series featuring notable authors in conversation about their new books. Presented by MPR News and The Minnesota Star Tribune.

'Never Look Back' updates an ancient story of love and loss
Lilliam Rivera's new young adult novel reimagines Orpheus and Eurydice as Afro-Latinx teens in New York, bringing something new to the old tale by giving Eurydice her own baggage and her own story.
First volume of Barack Obama's memoir coming Nov. 17
The book is called "A Promised Land" and will cover his swift and historic rise to the White House and his first term in office. The publication date for the second volume has not yet been determined.
Collect data, influence votes: 'If Then' traces the genesis of data-driven politics
In “If Then,” historian Jill Lepore tells the story of Simulmatics. Founded in 1959, the company's "people machine" used a computer program to predict the impact of various political messages.
In his new book “No Rules Rules,” Reed Hastings argues that in order for a creative workplace to succeed, it needs as few policies and rules as possible. Others say the culture is demoralizing.
Grand Jury issued criminal subpoenas in connection with John Bolton book
The move signals the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation surrounding the publication of “The Room Where It Happened” after an unsuccessful effort to block it from being published.
A widow discovers that her marriage wasn't 'Monogamy'
As the central character struggles with grief and shock at her late husband's infidelity, author Sue Miller keeps deftly shifting what readers might anticipate to be the ending of this novel.
Home sweet labyrinth: Susanna Clarke's mysterious 'Piranesi' will lock you in
It's been 16 years since Clarke wrote “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.” "The pressure of all the years when I hadn't written, and all the stories I hadn't written, weighed very heavily on me," she says.